Operations

47 CFR 95.1 - 95.181 prescribes all operating requirements which apply to
GMRS. General system technical details and major operational regulations are highlighted below.

Equipment

A GMRS system consists of station operators, a mobile station (often comprised of several mobile units) and sometimes one or
more land stations. A small base station is one that has an antenna no more than 20 feet above the ground or above the tree on
which it is mounted and transmits with no more than 5 watts ERP. Expect a communications range of five to twenty-five miles.
You cannot make a telephone call with a GMRS unit.

Territorial Limits

Normally, you and your family members would communicate between yourselves over the general area of your residence, such as an urban or rural area. This area must be within the territorial limits of the fifty United States, the District of Columbia, and the Caribbean and Pacific Insular areas. In transient use, mobile station units from one GMRS system may communicate through a mobile relay station in another GMRS system with the permission of its licensee. The communications may also be with mobile station units from other GMRS systems also with permission from the licensee to communicate through the mobile relay station.

GMRS applicants must certify that they will comply with the requirement that use of frequencies 462.650, 467.650, 462.700 and 467.700 MHz is not permitted near the
Canadian border North of Line A and East of Line C. These frequencies are used throughout
Canada and harmful interference is anticipated.

Channel Sharing

Every GMRS system station operator must cooperate in sharing the assigned channel with station operators in other GMRS systems by monitoring the channel before initiating transmissions, waiting until communications in progress are completed before initiating transmissions, engaging in only permissible communications and limiting transmissions to the minimum practical transmission time.